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SUBJECT: 075 PSA 105:37 A Stanza of Deliverance
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A Stanza of Deliverance
Delivered on July 31, 1890
by
C. H. SPURGEON
"He brought them forth also with silver and gold: and there was not one
feeble person among their tribes."-- Psa_105:37.
This verse has been making music in my heart for several days, and at times
it has even claimed utterance from my tongue. I have caught myself singing a
solo, with myself as the only hearer; and this has been the theme, "He
brought them forth also with silver and gold: and there was not one feeble
person among their tribes." I love texts which sing to me, and make me join
in their tune. If this verse should get into your hearts, and set you
singing in a similar way, you will be entertaining a very pleasant visitor,
and it will brighten a dark day for you.
Egypt may very fairly represent those states of sorrow and sadness,
depression and oppression, into which God's people come far too frequently.
Specially is the house of bondage a true picture of our condition when we are
convinced of sin, but are ignorant of the way to escape from its guilt and
power. Then sin, which was once our Goshen of pleasure, becomes our iron
furnace of fear. Though we yield to sin when under conviction, yet we are no
longer its willing subjects: we feel that we are slaves, and we sigh by reason
of sore bondage. Glory be to God, he has now brought us out from that state
of slavery, and we can sing of freedom given by his own right hand!
Since then we have been permitted, in the order of God's providence, to live
among evil persons who have had power over us, and have used it
maliciously. They have hated our God, and, therefore, they have hated us,
and shown their dislike of us in many harsh and expecting ways. We find no
rest with them; but our soul is among lions. They seem as though they would
devour us, or else frighten us from following the road to heaven.
Full often has our gracious God delivered his persecuted people from such a
sorrowful condition, and brought them into a large room, wherein he has
made them happy with Christian fellowship, and enabled them to go about
holy work without let or hindrance. At such times, when God's people have
come out from under the yoke of their oppressors, the Lord has "brought
them forth also with silver and gold, and there has not been one feeble person
among their tribes."
It is possible to go down again into Egypt by reason of our own depression of
spirit, inward conflict, and despondency. If you like the preacher, you are by
no means a stranger to inward sinkings. Though you do not give up your
faith, but are still, like father Jacob, keeping your hold while the sinew is
shrinking, yet you are "sore broken in the place of dragons." You feel that
you are like that bush in the desert, which burned with fire, and, only
through a miracle, was not consumed. When under temptations of the flesh,
and memories of old sins, Satan himself comes in with his fiery darts, and
you have a hard time of it. He will insinuate dark and dreadful thoughts,
and you will be haunted by them, day after day, till you feel like the poor
Israelites under the lash of the Egyptian taskmaster. Your covenant with
God will bring you out of that state of anguish and distress; and when he
does so, you will sing, "He brought them forth also with silver and gold:
and there was not one feeble person among their tribes."
God forbid we should repeat that senseless and wicked trust in man, which
once made us do down into Egypt for help! We will not go there for pleasure:
what have we to do with drinking the waters of the muddy river? We drink of
a better river than the Nile, even of the river of the water of life. But
we shall go to the region weakness and pain to die. Unless the Lord should
suddenly come in his glory, we shall close our eyes in death as Jacob and
Joseph did. Then when we go into the tomb, which will be a kind of Egypt
for our body, we shall only tarry there for a season. We shall slumber for
a while, each one in his bed of dust, but the trump of the archangel shall
awaken us, and our bodies shall rise again. We shall not, however, come
from the grave so poor and feeble as we went in. No, we shall be great
gainers by our sojourn in the dark abode. Those who see the saints in the
day of resurrection, ascending to their thrones from the Egypt of death,
may fitly say, "He brought them forth also with silver and gold: and there
was not one feeble person among their tribes."
I am going to try to handle my very delightful subject in the following way:--
First, the deliverances of God's people are always wrought by divine power.
Lay the stress on the first word: "HE brought them forth." Secondly, their
deliverances are attended with enrichment. "He brought them forth also with
silver and gold." And, thirdly, their deliverances are accompanied by a
remarkable degree of strength. "There was not one feeble person among their
tribes." May the Holy Spirit make rare music for you upon this harp of three
strings!
I. First, then, when we are led out of the Egypt of our sorrow, OUR
DELIVERANCE IS BY DIVINE POWER. When Israel comes out of Egypt,
it was Jehovah who brought forth her armies. When any man is saved from
spiritual bondage, it is the Lord Jesus who looseth the captive. Some little
time ago, I delivered an address at the Mildmay Park Conference upon
"Following Jesus in the dark", and the Lord was pleased to bless that word to
a great many who were then under a cloud. For this cause, I greatly rejoice,
but from this happy result I have also had to suffer many things in the
following way: it seems as if persons everywhere, having read that address,
must needs write to me an account of their trouble, despondency, and
darkness of the soul. Having written the doleful narrative, they very
naturally ask me endless questions by way of trying to find light for
themselves out of my experience and knowledge. I have been delighted to
answer those questions as far as I can; but there is a limit to human
power. I have lately been like a doctor who has suddenly had a new practice
handed over to him, when he was already as busy as he could be, both night
and day. He finds his door besieged by patients who cannot be dismissed
with just a word of hope and a dose of medicine, but require a long time in
which to tell their griefs and to receive their comfort. Spiritually, my
night-bell is always going; and when I visit a sick soul, it requires long
and weary nursing. I know, therefore, from that, as well as from my own
experience, that if ever a man is delivered from spiritual bondage of
heart, it is not by any easy work, or by a hasty word. Nay, all the power
of sympathy and experience will fail with some souls. God alone can take
away the iron when it enters into the soul. It is of small use for those
afflicted in mind to write to me, or to others, if their distress is
spiritual, for God only can deliver them. If they are in the dark, we can
strike a match as well as anyone else; but since they need the shining of
the sun, that remains with the Lord, who alone creates the light. Oh, that the
Sun of righteousness would rise with healing beneath his wings, on every
soul that now sits in the midnight of despair! Deliverance from a cruel
captivity, like that of Israel in Egypt, must be wrought by the hand and
outstretched arm of Jehovah alone. When such a liberation is performed, then
do we rapturously sing, "HE brought them forth."
But this does not exclude the use of means. The Lord used Moses and Aaron,
and Moses used his rod and his tongue. Truly Jehovah brought forth Israel,
and neither Moses nor Aaron nor the rod in Moses' hand; but yet the Lord's
instruments were employed in the service. If the Lord delivers you, my dear
afflicted friends, the work will not be done by the preacher, not by a
consoling book, nor by any other means so as to prevent its being the Lord
alone. The use of instrumentality does not hide divine power, but even makes
it more apparent. The man Moses was not only very meek; but he was also so
slow in speech that he needed Aaron's help; yet the Lord used him. Aaron
was even inferior to Moses; but the Lord used him. As for the rod, it was
probably nothing more than a hazel stick, which had been used by Moses in
walking and keeping sheep; but it pleased the Lord to make of that rod a very
remarkable use, so that no sceptre of kings was ever so greatly honoured. The
Lord took care to employ means which could not pretend to share the honour
with himself. Notwithstanding Moses, Aaron, and the rod, "HE brought them
forth," and HE alone.
This work of the Lord does not exclude the action of the will. The people of
Israel came forth freely from the country which had become the house of
bondage. "He brought forth his people with joy, and his chosen with
gladness." They set out exultingly, glad to escape from the intolerable
oppression of Pharaoh, who was to them a tyrant indeed. God does not
violate the human will when he saves men: they are not converted against
their will, but their will itself is converted. The Lord has a way of entering
the heart, not with a crowbar, like a burglar, but with a master-key, which he
gently inserts in the lock, and the bolt flies back, the door opens, and he
enters. The Lord brought Israel forth; but they had cried unto the Lord by
reason of their sore bondage, and they did not receive the blessing without
the desiring it, yea, and sighing for it; and when it came, they joyfully
accepted it, and willingly trusted themselves with him whom the Lord had
made to be their mediator and leader, even Moses. They did not share the
honour of their deliverance with God, but still they gave their hearty assent
and consent to his salvation. Willingly as they were to move, it was still
true, "HE brought them forth."
Brethren, he must have brought them forth, for they could never have come
forth by themselves. If you have read enough of Egyptian history to
understand the position and power of the reigning Pharaohs, you will know
how impossible it was for a mob of slaves, like the Israelites, to make
headway against the imperious monarch, and his absolute power. If they had
clamoured and rebelled, the only possible result would have been to slaughter
many, and the still further enslavement of the rest. There was no hope for the
most distinguished Israelite against the tyranny of the Pharaoh: He could
simply cry, "Get you unto your burdens;" and they could do no less. Pharaoh
crushed even his own Egyptians, and much more the strangers. You cannot
look upon the pyramids and other vast buildings along the Nile, and
remember that all these were built with unpaid labour, with the whip
continually at the workman's back, without feeling that a pastoral unarmed
race, long held in servitude , could never have obtained deliverance from the
power of Pharaohs, if the omnipotent Jehovah had not espoused their cause.
"HE brought them forth."
Beloved, we can never escape from the bondage of sin by our own power. Our
past guilt, and the condemnation consequent thereon, have locked us up in a
dungeon, whose bars we can never break. The prince of darkness, also, has
such power over our evil natures that we cannot overcome him, or escape
from under his dominion of ourselves. If we are ever set free from sin and
Satan, it will be eternally and infinitely true that the Lord brought us forth
out of the house of bondage. "Salvation is of the Lord."
Moveover, the spirit of the people was too crushed to have dared to come
forth, even if they could have achieved liberty by a brave revolt. Four
hundred years of slavery had ground the very spirit out of the men of Israel.
They toiled, they toiled, they toiled; and when Moses came and talked to
them about freedom, at first they listened, and they hoped; but in a few hours
they began to murmur, and to complain of Moses, and to cry, "Let us alone,
that we may serve the Egyptians." That abject condition was ours before
conversion; we were not easily aroused to seek redemption. I remember
hearing the gospel, and getting a little comfort from it, and almost
immediately falling back into my former hopelessness; and I said in my soul,
"I may as well enjoy the pleasures of sin while I can, for I am doomed to
perish for my iniquities." The slavery of sin takes away manliness and
courage from the spirit; and where bright hope smiles upon us, we answer
her with the sullen silence of despair. Was it not so with you, my
brethren, in those gloomy days? Therefore, it must be true, that, if the
prisoners of sin have some forth, the Lord himself brought them forth. They
had not the spirit of men who could dare to care about their freedom; they
were too enfeebled by their own servile spirit. There may be some before
me, at this moment, before whom God has set an open door, and yet they dare
not go through it. Christ is put before you; you may have him for your
trusting; you may have him at once; but you dare not take him. You are
commanded to believe, but you dare not believe what you know to be true.
You hear us sing the hymn--
"Only trust him, only trust him,
Only trust him now;"
but you dare not trust the Lord Jesus, though this is your only hope of
obtaining salvation. Your sin has left you paralyzed with despair. O God,
bring forth these prisoners, even now! Though they lie in the inner prison,
with their feet fast in the stocks, may it be said on earth and sung in
heaven, "HE brought them forth."
Yet the Lord did bring them forth. Not in part, but as a whole, he redeemed
his people. Every one of them was set free. Not only all the human beings,
but all their cattle came forth, according to the word of the Lord. "Not a
hoof shall be left behind." Christ Jesus, in redeeming his people, will
have all or none. All that the Father gave him shall come to him; nor shall
the power of sin, and death, and hell be able to hold in captivity one whom
Jesus has effectually redeemed, nor one whom his Father chose. All the
covenanted ones shall be his in the day when he makes up his jewels. He has
paid too much for them to lose one of them. In the loss of one of them too
much would be involved; his word, his covenant, his power, his
faithfulness, his honour, would all suffer, should one of his little ones
perish. Therefore, he makes their deliverance effectual, and in every deed
he brings them forth.
This deliverance came when the lamb was slain. Pharaoh held Israel captive
during all the plagues, but he could not go beyond a certain point. On that
same night when they saw the lamb slain, and roasted with fire, while they
sat in their houses protected by the blood sprinkled upon the lintel, and the
two side posts of their doors, that selfsame night they quitted Egypt. They
went forth under that seal of redemption, the blood-red mark of
substitutionary sacrifice. My dear hearer, perhaps this very night you will
also go forth into glorious liberty. I know you will, if you will by faith
look to Jesus as the Lamb slain for you. Will you now accept him as your
own, and trust him to be your redemption? Behold, then, the Lamb of God
that taketh away the sin of the world! Take his precious blood, and let it
be sprinkled on your door, yea, and upon your own self, that the angel of
vengeance may pass you by. Can you come and feed on Christ at once, as the
Lamb of God's passover? Do you say that this would be a bold and
venturesome faith? Yet be so bold and venturesome. Blessed to the name of
the Lord, none were ever rejected, who dared to trust Jesus! We will sing
about you and others if you have faith in the great sacrifice, and this
will be our song, "HE brought them forth."
Israel cannot remain under slavery to Egypt when once the redemption price
has been accepted, and the blood has been sprinkled. None know freedom
from sin but those who trust the atoning blood. God forbid that I should point
you to any way of hope but this one path; for without the shedding of blood,
there is no remission of sin!
I have perhaps said enough on this point; but assuredly I have fallen short,
unless I have made you know each one that deliverance from sin is solely by
the power of God. "It is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but
of God that sheweth mercy." Unless a supernatural power is put forth in it,
any form of deliverance from sin is worth nothing. If you have been born
again from below, you will go below; you must be born again from above if
you are to go above. There is no true liberty but that wherewith Christ make
you free. "If the Son shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed." Do you
know what it is, dear friends, to be brought out of prison by a miracle of
grace, by a revelation of the Holy Ghost, by the blood of Jesus shed for many?
If so, you will join with all the saints in singing, "As for his people, HE
brought them forth."
II. But now we reach a very pleasing part of our theme, We have now to note
that OUR DELIVERANCE WAS ATTENDED WITH ENRICHMENT: "He
brought them forth with silver and gold." "Oh!" says one, "I remember all
that about that translation. That is the silver and gold which they borrowed
from the Egyptians with no intent of repaying the loan. I have always though
that was a thievish trick." It was a very unfortunate mistake of our
translators when they rendered the original by the word "borrowed", for it
is not the correct word. Our Revised Version has it more accurately, "And
the children of Israel did according to the word of Moses; and they asked
of the Egyptians jewels of silver and jewels of Gold, and raiment: and the
Lord gave the people favour in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they let
them have what they asked." Even if you were forced to read the word
"borrowed", it might mean nothing amiss, for all borrowing and nonpayment
is not thieving.
"Oh!" say you, "that is a new doctrine." Let me state the case. If I borrow
upon the security of my property, and leave the property in the hand of the
lender, he will not complain if the security is worth more than the loan.
These Israelites had lands and houses and other property which they could
not carry with them, and now that their sudden removal involved a forced
sale, they could say to those who lived near them, "Here is our land, what
will you give us upon it?" The people took the immovable property of the
Israelites, and they granted them a loan upon it, they were well aware of what
they were doing, and were not defrauded. But we have no need thus to defend
Israel. The Great Proprietor of all things bade them to ask, and influenced
the minds of their neighbors to give. It was just that these poor people,
who had been working without fee or reward, and had thereby screened the
native Egyptians from much forced labour. The people of Egypt were, in
part, afraid of them and of their God, and were also, in measure,
sympathetic with them under their cruel oppression, and so they forced
presents upon the Israelites hoping to get their blessing before they
departed, to save them from further plague which might visit the land. The
natives as good as said, "Take whatever you please of us, for we have
treated you ill. Only leave us alone; for plagues and deaths fall upon us
thick and fast so long as Pharaoh detains you here." However, this is not
my point. I am dealing with more spiritual things. When God brings his
people out of bondage, they come out enriched in the best and most emphatic
sense.
This seemed very unlikely. It looks to the afflicted as if they could not be
profited by trials such as theirs. If they can only escape by the skin of
their teeth, they will feel perfectly satisfied. Depressed spirits cannot
lift their thought so high as to think of the gold of increased joy, or the
silver of enlarged knowledge, or the jewels of holy graces. "I am," said
one, "quite prepared to sit down behind the door in heaven, or at the feet
of the least of the saints, so long as I may but get there." In some
respects this is a very proper feeling. But this is not God's way of
acting: he did not lead forth his people in a poverty-stricken way, but "He
brought them forth also with silver and gold." Your Deliverer means to
enrich you spiritually when he sets you free from your sorrow and trouble.
It was very far from being the design of their enemies to enrich Israel:
Pharaoh had intended to work them down to the last ounce of strength, and
keep them in abject poverty; in fact, one chief object of his oppression
was to kill down the race, lest they should too greatly multiply. But the
Lord turned the curse into a blessing; "The more they afflicted them, the
more they multiplied and grew;" and the harder they worked, the healthier
they became, so that "there was not one feeble person among their tribes."
This was not according to their enemies' will; but the will of the Lord is
paramount. Even so it is not the devil's will to drive a man nearer to
Christ, but yet his temptations and assaults are often used of the Lord to
make the best and most experienced Christians. Satan is the scullion in
God's kitchen, and he has to scour the vessels of mercy. Trials and
afflictions, which threaten to kill us, are made to sanctify us; and
sanctification is the best form of enrichment. How much we owe to sorrow
and sickness, crosses and losses! Our bondage ends in our coming forth with
much that is better than silver and gold.
Thus do we come forth from conviction of sin. "Now tell me," says one, "what
does man gain by being in a desponding, sorrowful condition, convinced of
sin, and full of fears?" By the work of the Holy Spirit he will gain much. He
will obtain a clearer knowledge of the evil of sin. This is a rare thing
nowadays, when we have so many believers who were never penitent. It is a
great thing for a child, who has a habit of stealing apples, to get himself
well filled with the sourest of them, and feel the gripes strong within
him. He will never touch such fruit anymore. It is a great thing for a man,
in his early days, to know what a sour apple sin is, and to feel heartache
and soul-anguish because of the exceeding bitterness of his evil ways. It
is a lasting lesson. As the burnt child dreads the fire, and the scalded
dog is afraid even of cold water, so the discipline of conscience, through
divine grace, breeds a holy caution, and even a hatred of sin. We have few
Puritans because we have few penitents. An awful sense of guilt, an
overwhelming conviction of sin, may be the foundation stone of a gloriously
holy character.
The tried and tempted man will also see clearly that salvation is all of
grace. He feels that, if he ever rises from his despondency, he can never
dare to take and atom of the honour of deliverance to himself; it must be
of free grace only. He can do nothing, and he knows it. When a child of God
can spell GRACE, and can pronounce it clearly, as with the true Jerusalem
accent, he has gained a great deal of spiritual silver and gold. I have
heard a brother stutter over that word, "free grace", till it came out very
like "free will." As for myself, that Shibboleth I pronounce without
faltering, for my free will is that which I daily try to master and I bring
into complete subjection to the will of God, and to free grace I owe
everything. Blessed is that man, who, by his experience, has been made to
know that free grace is the source of every blessing and privilege, and
that salvation is all of grace from first to last. By a knowledge of the
great gospel principle of grace, men are brought forth also with silver and
gold.
Such persons gain by their soul trouble a fund of healthy experience. They
have been in the prison, and have had their feet made fast in the stocks.
"Well," says one, "I do not want to feel that sort of treatment." No, but
suppose you had felt it, the next time you met with a brother who was locked
up in the castle of the Giant Despair, you would know how to sympathize
with him and help him. You who never felt a finger-ache cannot show much
sympathy with broken bones. I take it to be a great gain to a man to be
able to exhibit sympathy towards sufferers of all kinds, especially towards
spiritual suffers. If you can enter into the condition of a bondsman,
because you have yourself been a bondsman in Egypt, and God has brought you
out, then you will be qualified to comfort those that mourn.
Thus, you see, in various ways, the Lord's people are enriched by the sorrows
from which they are delivered by God. "HE brought them forth also with
silver and gold." Persons who come to Christ suddenly, and find peace
immediately, have much to be grateful for; and they may be helpful to others
of a similar character; but those who suffer long law-work, and have deep
searchings of the heart, before they can enter into rest, have equal
reasons for thankfulness, since they obtain a fitness for dealing with
special cases of distressed conscience. Where this is the result of severe
trial, we may well say that the Lord has brought them forth with silver and
gold.
Thus do saints come out of persecution. The church is refined by the fires of
martyrdom. The heap on the Lord's threshing-floor is more largely made up
of real wheat after the winnowing fan has been used upon it. Individual piety
is also deeper, stronger, nobler in persecuting times than in other seasons.
Eminent saints have usually been produced where the environment was
opposed to truth and godliness. To this day the bride of Christ has for her
fairest jewels the rubies of martyrdom. Out of each period of fierce
persecution the Lord has brought forth his people the better for the fires.
"HE brought them forth also with silver and gold."
Thus do believers come out of daily afflictions. They become wealthier in
grace, and richer in experience. Have you noticed how real those men are
who have known sharp trial? If you want an idle evening of chit-chat, go and
talk to the gentleman with a regular income, constant good health, and
admiring friends; he will amuse your leisure hour. But if you are sad and
sorrowful, and need conversation that will bless you, steer clear of that
man's door. Look into the faces of the frivolous, and turn away as a
thirsty man from an empty cistern. He that has never had his own cheek wet
with tears, cannot wipe my tears away. Where will you go in the day of
trouble? Why, to that good old man whose sober experience has not robbed
him of cheerfulness, though it has killed his sinful folly. He has been
poor, and he knows the inconvenience of straightened means; he has been
ill, and can bear with the infirmities of the sick; he has buried his
dearest ones, and has compassion for the bereaved. When he begins to talk,
the tone of his voice is that of a sympathetic friend. His lips drop
fatness of comfort. What a gain is his spiritual acquaintance! A man of
God, whose life has been full of mental exercises and spiritual conflict,
as well as outward tribulation, becomes, through divine grace, a man of a
large wealth of knowledge, prudence, faith, foresight, and wisdom, and he
is to the inexperienced like some great proprietor, by whom multitudes of
the poorer classes are fed, and guided, housed and set to work. Those who
have been much tried are in the peerage of the church. A man who has been
in the furnace, and has come out of it, is a marked man. I think I should
know Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego even now if I were to meet them.
Though the smell of the fire had not passed upon them, I feel sure that it
left a glow upon their countenances, and a glory upon their persons, which
we find no where else. They are, henceforth called "the three holy
children": they were holy before, but now men own it. Do you not think that
they were great gainers by the furnace, and is it not true of all the godly
whose lives have been made memorable by special tribulation: "HE brought
them forth also with silver and gold"?
When you and I reach the shores of heaven, thus shall we come into glory.
When we come forth out of our graves, it will not be with loss, but with
enrichment. We shall leave corruption and the worm behind us, and with
them all that earthly grossness which made us groan in these mortal bodies.
God will bring us forth also with silver and gold. What golden songs will we
sing! What silver notes of gratitude will we pour forth! What jewels of
communion with one another, and of communion with our Lord, will adorn
our raiment! If we, too, have been men of sorrows and acquainted with grief,
how much more fully shall we enter into the joy of our Lord, because we
entered into his sorrow! We also have suffered for sin, and have done battle
for God and for his truth against the enemy. We also have borne reproach.
And become aliens to our mother's children; we too have been bruised in the
heel, and yet in death have conquered death, even as he did; only by his
grace. Hence the joy of fellowship with him through eternity. What news we
shall have to tell to angels, and principalities, and powers! The gems of our
grateful history will be our trials and deliverances. Coming up from death to
eternal life, this will be the sum of it, "HE brought them forth also with
silver and gold."
Dear friends, I am anxious to pass on to the third point, for time is flying
fast; but I cannot neglect the application of what I have said. I beg those of
you who are sad and despondent to notice the truths I have advanced. I want
you to believe that your present affliction is for your enrichment. You will
come out of this Egypt, with much profit of grace. "Let me out," cries one,
"only let me out." I pray you, be not impatient. Why rush out naked, when a
little patience will be repaid with silver and gold? If I were labouring in
Egypt, and I heard that it was time for me to start for the land of Canaan, I
should be eager to be gone at once; but if I found that I must be hindered for
an hour or two, I should certainly utilize the delay by disposing of my lands,
and endeavouring to get together treasures which I could carry with me. The
delay would not be lost time. Therefore, beloved friend, if you cannot at once
obtain comfort, make good use of your affliction. Be always more earnest to
profit by your trials than to escape from them. Be more earnest after the
heavenly silver and gold than about hurrying away from the scene of conflict
and temptation.
III. Thirdly; here is a very wonderful thing. OUR DELIVERANCE IS
ACCOMPANIED WITH HEALTH AND STRENGTH: "There was not one
feeble person among their tribes." In the thousands of Israel there was not
one person who could not march out of the land keeping rank as an efficient
soldier. Everyone was fit for the journey through the wilderness. They
numbered hard upon two millions, if not more; and it is a very surprising fact
that there should not have been one feeble person among their tribes. Mark
the word, no only no one sick, nut no one "feeble", none with the
rheumatism, or other pains which enfeeble walking, or palsies which prevent
bearing burdens. This was nothing less than a sanitary miracle, the like of
which was never know in the natural order of things.
This fact is typical of the health and strength of the newly saved. The Lord's
people, at conversion, are as a rule wonderfully strong in their love to
Jesus, and their hatred of sin. In most cases our young converts, when they
have truly come to Christ, even if they are a little timid, are vigorous,
much in prayer, abounding in zeal, and earnest in speaking out the gospel.
Many of them, I believe, would die at the stake readily enough, while they
are in their first love. In their earliest days nothing is too hot or too
heavy for them, for the sake of Jesus Christ, their Lord. If I want a bit
of work to be done which requires dash and self-sacrifice, give me a set of
Israelites who have just come out of Egypt, for there is not one feeble
person among their tribes. After they have gone some distance into the
wilderness, they are apt to forget the right hand of the Lord, and to get
fretting and worrying. Very soon many of them are sick, through being
bitten by fiery serpents, or smitten with the plague. They begin grumbling
and complaining, and run into all sorts of mischief in a short time; but
when they first came out, they were so excellent that even the Lord said,
"I remember thee, the love of thine espousals." I have know some of you,
after you have been members of the church for a few months, greatly need a
nice cushion to sit upon, and the cozy corner of the pew; whereas once you
could stand in the aisle, and not know that you were standing. You have
grown wonderfully particular about the singing, and the tunes, and the
length of the prayer, and the preacher's attitude, and especially the
respect paid to your own dear self. Only very choicest service suits you:
it would almost insult you if you were put to common work. You were not
like that when you were first converted. Do you recollect how the crowd
pressed upon you, and yet you were so absorbed in listening to the
preacher's voice that you never minded it? What walks you took then to
reach the service! I notice, my friend, that when your grace grew short,
the miles grew long. When you first joined the church, I said to you, "I
fear you live too far off to attend regularly." But you took me up very
quickly, and said, "Oh, that is nothing, sir! If I can only get spiritual
food, distance is no object." When you get cold in hearts, you find it
inconvenient to come so far, and you go to a fashionable place of worship,
where your musical tastes can be gratified. Yes, when grace declines, fancy
rules the mind, and love of ease controls the body, and the soul loses
appetite, and grows greedy for empty phrases, and weary of the Word of God.
May the Lord grant you grace to be among those of whom it is said, "There
was not one feeble person among their tribes"!
Full often it is so with the persecuted. I do not wish that any of you should
experience persecution, but I am persuaded it would do some of you good to
have a touch of it. A man who has fulfilled an apprenticeship to this hard
master, is likely to be a man indeed. If he has endured hardness as a good
soldier of Jesus Christ, he will be fit to become an officer in the army,
and an instructor of recruits. If I could, by the lifting of my finger,
screen every believer from persecution at home and in the workshop, I
should hesitate long before I did it, since I am persuaded that the church
is never more pure, more holy, more prayerful, or more powerful than when
the world is raging against her. The dogs keep off the wolves. The
hypocrite declines to enter the church where he will gain nothing by
reproach, or worse. When there were the stakes at Smithfield, Protestantism
meant heroism. When the Lord's covenanting people were meeting among the
hills and mosses of Scotland, there were no "moderates" and "modern-
thought" men among them. They knew and loved the truth for which they
fought and that truth made them strong.
It could be a glorious day if it were so with all God's people, that there
were none feeble. We should, as a church, labour to reach this high
standard. We would have the weakest to be as David, and David as the angel
of the Lord. We would have our babes become young men, and our young men
fathers in Christ. Do we reach this standard at the Tabernacle? Alas! We do
not, by a very long way. There are numbers of very feeble persons among our
tribes. I will not say a word against them, dear hearts! For I trust they
are sincere, though feeble. How greatly I wish that they were more
concerned about their own feebleness, for it is a real loss to the cause we
have at heart! The feeble hinder the strong. We want all the strength of
the host for storming the enemies' ramparts, whereas some of us have to
stop behind and nurse the infirm. We should not mind this so much, only
these are the same poor creatures that were nursed twenty years ago, and
they have not made no advance. May the Lord strengthen us all, till we
shall all be made fit for the service of Jesus!
Oh, when we meet in the home country, when we once get to glory, what a
delight it will be that there will be no sin or weakness there! When the Lord
has once brought us forth from the world and all its troubles, then all sinful
weakness shall be unknown. We shall all be raised in power, and shall be as
angels of God. Are you going there, dear friends? "Yes," says one, "I hope
that I am going there; but I am a feeble person." Thank God that you are on
the right road, even if you limp. It is better to enter into life halt, and
maimed, and feeble, than to run and leap in the way of death. If I can give a
lift to anyone who is feeble, I am sure I will. At the same time, I would urge
you to cry to the Lord to make you strong, and bid you trust in Christ for the
power, which he alone can give, of faith to overcome doubts and fears.
If any of you have not believe unto eternal life, now put your trust in the
Lord Jesus. They serve a good Master who trust alone in Jesus, and take up
their cross and follow him. In him is life for the perishing, joy for the
sorrowing, rest for the weary, and liberty for the captives. Are you shut
up, like a prisoner in a castle? Do but trust in Jesus, and he will batter
the dungeon door, and bring you out. Yea, and he will not give you a
penniless liberty, a liberty to perish of want. No, it shall be said of
you, and of others like you, "HE brought them forth also with silver and
gold." Amen, so be it! So be it, even at this moment, good Lord!
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